Zimbabwe's commercial farmers have fallen victim to a renewed campaign of mindless violence with the killing of hundreds of cattle by workers egged on by supporters of President Robert Mugabe.

On one farm several hundred head of cattle were recently driven into a dam to drown while others were penned into paddocks, in searing heat, to starve to death.

Cattle were sent to their excruciating end by a group of about hysterical 20 farm workers, encouraged by government supporters, at Forrester Estates, in the Mvurwi district about 60 miles north-east of Harare.

"It was terrible," said Fanie Ferreira, 43, who recently quit as a sub-manager on the estate. "The noise they made was . . . you can't describe it. It was frightening.

"It took about an hour for the last one to die. Some just drowned, some slipped on the mud and then couldn't get up. The next day we pulled the corpses out of the dam and burned them."

Days earlier cattle were locked into pens and the crazed gang refused to allow management to feed or water the animals at a time of extreme heat in a dry spell late last month.

Forrester Estates is owned by Heinrich von Pezold, a German, and has had a measure of protection from a trade agreement between the Zimbabwe and German governments following the seizure of more than 90 per cent of white-owned farmland since early 2000.

Despite court orders setting aside all seizure notices, two sections of the 20,000-acre estate were closed down by Mugabe supporters.

Police were unable to say if anyone was arrested in connection with the cattle deaths at a time when a beef shortage is imminent and almost half the population is on the brink of starvation.

A spokesman for the Commercial Farmers' Union said farmers were still being prevented from growing crops, or were being chased off their properties.

Fewer than 600 commercial farmers are either living on their farms, or trying to grow crops from about 4,500 before Mr Mugabe launched his violent seizures of white-owned farms.

The World Food Programme, which is now feeding more than two million Zimbabweans, said last week the worst is still to come and that, in mid to late January, Zimbabwe could be staring famine in the face for the first time in its history.

Drought last year caused some of the food deficit but the WFP largely blames the disruption of commercial agriculture.

They show that there are MUCH worse things than the paternalistic aspects of the colonial era.

(Please note that I am refering to the good things some of the colonising countries did. Not to the hideous violence such as caused by the King of Belgium in the late 1800s, as documented in some of Mark Twain's writings.)

On one farm several hundred head of cattle were recently driven into a dam to drown while others were penned into paddocks, in searing heat, to starve to death.

Nothing more than an initial mis-step on the part of these brave farmers. I'm certain that all will turn out correctly in the long run, that Mad Bob's Marxist Utopia will prevail, and whitey will be shown what a horrible person he is.

Do you have ANY doubt as to which country is going to be picking up the bill for this mindless violence? Zimbabwe seems hell bent on going from being a third world country to straight back to the stone age.

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